1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to clothing and, more particularly, to an apparatus for closing an opening in the skin of a stuffed toy after the toy is filled with stuffing material.
2. Description of the Related Art
Stuffed animals and toys are typically formed by filling a sewn fabric skin with a resilient material such as polyester-cellulose fibers alone or along with polystyrene beads or other filler materials, creating a three-dimensional soft and resilient representation of an animal or other toy.
In some custom manufacturing, an injection tube is inserted through the stuffing opening and the stuffing material is then injected or pumped through the tube into the interior of the stuffed toy.
When the stuffed toy is sufficiently filled with stuffing material, the stuffing opening must be closed. Where possible this has entailed sewing the stuffing opening closed using a sewing machine, which produces an outside ridge which is readily apparent on the skin of the finished stuffed toy. It is desirable to eliminate the need for a sewing machine and to eliminate this ridge. Further, closing the stuffing opening after the stuffing material is inserted can be a relatively time consuming and costly procedure. It is also desirable that the stuffing opening be closed in such a way that considerable time is saved compared to the traditional and costly sewing method.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,109,196 issued to Silber on Aug. 29, 2000 discloses a method of closing that provides openings for stitching, lacing of the stitching filament through the openings prior to stuffing, and pulling the stitching to close the opening after stuffing.
Stuffed objects, such as pillows, are often closed with slide fasteners of a type that can be locked in position, thereby preventing unintended reopening, which would allow stuffing to escape. Various auto-locking slide fasteners are known in the art and include is U.S. Pat. No. 4,081,883 issued April 1978 to Ishii et al., U.S. Pat. No. 139,928 issued Feb. 2, 1979 to Aoki et al., and U.S. Pat. No. 4,422,220 issued December 1983 to Oda, 4,768,263 issued September, 1988 to Fikuroi, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,031,286 issued Jul. 16, 1991 to Kudzierski, U.S. Pat. No. 5,884,373 issued Mar. 23, 1999 to Kawamura, U.S. Pat. No. 5,896,628 issued Apr. 26, 1999 to Oda and U.S. Pat. No. 6,314,624 issued Nov. 13, 2001 to Lin. Each of these patents teaches the use of an integral portion of the slide fastener that permits unlocking the slide fastener. Typically, the slide fastener includes a locking member that is biased to a locked position and a fastener pull that forces the locking member to an unlocked position when a distal end of the fastener pull is moved to a determined position.
A slide fastener having an integral lever for unlocking the fastener is not advantageous for a stuffed toy as such opening a fastener would allow a user to readily unlock the fastener, thereby allowing stuffing material to escape.